Surgical staplers are used in surgical procedures to seal, divide, and/or transect tissues in the body by closing openings in tissue, blood vessels, ducts, shunts, or other objects or body parts involved in the particular procedure. The openings can be naturally occurring, such as passageways in blood vessels, airways or an internal lumen or organ like the stomach, or they can be formed by the surgeon during a surgical procedure, such as by puncturing tissue or blood vessels to form a bypass or an anastomosis, or by cutting tissue during a stapling procedure.
There are various types of staplers suited for particular surgical procedures. For example, linear staplers include a handle with an elongate shaft having a pair of opposed jaws formed on an end thereof for holding and forming staples therebetween. At least one of the opposed jaws is movable relative to the other. The staples are typically contained in a staple cartridge assembly, which can house multiple rows of staples and is often disposed in one of the two jaws for ejection of the staples to the surgical site. Circular staplers have a handle and an elongate shaft with an anvil and a cartridge assembly disposed on a distal end of the elongate shaft, the anvil axially movable relative to the cartridge assembly and configured to form staples therebetween and deploy the staples into tissue.
While surgical staplers have improved over the years, a number of problems can potentially arise. Although rare, as illustrated in FIG. 1, one problem is that leaks can occur due to staples S forming tears H when penetrating a tissue T or other object in which the staples S are disposed. Blood, air, gastrointestinal fluids, and other fluids can seep through the tears H formed by the staples S, even after the staples S are fully formed. The tissue T being treated can also become inflamed due to the manipulations and deformations that can occur during stapling. Still further, staples, as well as other objects and materials implanted during stapling procedures, generally lack the same characteristics as tissue in which they are implanted. For example, staples and other objects and materials can lack the natural flexibility of the tissue in which they are implanted. A person skilled in the art will recognize that it is often desirable for tissue to maintain as much of its natural characteristics as possible after staples are disposed therein.
In the particular case of stapling a colon, it is important that the staple line of the anastomosis is substantially sealed so that gastrointestinal solids and fluid remain in the organ. Leakage from the tubular body organ, e.g. a colon, can interfere with normal digestive function and can introduce bacteria into other portions of the body, causing infection. However, it can be difficult to prevent leaks in a tubular body organ for a variety of reasons. For example, it can be difficult for the tissue disposed near the staple line to withstand repeated expansion and contraction that occurs when solids and fluid passes through the colon. Additionally, it can be difficult to deliver sealant to the tubular body organ and control the position of the sealant when it is curing from a liquid state to a solidified state
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved surgical methods and devices for sealing a body lumen.